You see, the overwhelming majority of mankind has to go through life having faith in an invisible God. If you, by some incredible act of God’s mercy, are excused from that obligation, you can be certain that you will be expected to perform some pretty incredible feat later on, including even the possibility of giving your life. — P.16

The more steps you take towards God, the closer he will come to you. — P.23

Happiness is the thing God is going to give you in return for your selflessness. — P.37

There is a divine nexus between your generosity and blessings from God. When my mother told me that I would receive two things for every one I gave away, she was really teaching me something very fundamental about God and the way He operates; namely, that He will never be outdone in generosity. When it comes to bestowing blessings, God will not allow a human being to do more than He does. When it comes to being generous, God simply will not consent to being upstaged. — P.50

There is one place in the Bible where God actually tells people to challenge Him. There is one passage in all of Scripture where God actually used the phrase “put me to the test.” In the book of Malachi, God asks the Israelites to give Him a tenth of what they earn. Then He says to them: “Test me in this….see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that will not have room enough for it.” — P.50

Just look at what happened to Christ. The night before He died, He prayed to God that He wouldn’t have to endure the bloody, violent death of a crucifixion. He knew very well how much pain He was going to go through, and He tried to get out of it: “My Father,” He asked, “if it is possible, let this cup be taken away from me.” Christ — the second person of the Blessed Trinity — made a last ditch attempt to avoid suffering. At the eleventh house, He asked for a reprieve. But since He was the perfect son, He also added, “Yet, not as I will, but as You will.” We all know what happened. His request was denied. The Crucifixion went on as scheduled. Well, if God refused His own son, how can we expect any guarantee that He will be any easier on us? No matter how much we pray, we may still have to go through some horrible ordeal in the future. — P.64-65

Very rarely does God ever willingly, knowingly, or purposefully make anyone suffer….What makes people angry at God is that He doesn’t go out of his way to prevent suffering, either — at least not usually. In fact, God almost never uses His raw power to manipulate people or events. Just as He didn’t stop Adam and Eve from rebelling against Him, so He doesn’t forcibly prevent people from doing bad things today; so He doesn’t forcibly prevent natural disasters from happening. That’s just not the way He operates. — P.73-74

If you are really sorry about committing some sin — any sin — all you have to do is apologize to God, and He will forgive you. Period. — P.85

Remember, a good Christian is not someone who doesn’t ever sin, but someone who repents every time he does. That means that, ultimately, the definition of a successful life is one in which we repent one more time than we sin. — P.96

That’s why the road to peace is not always so peaceful. In fact, it can get pretty bumpy. Changing your life in a radical way can be a painful experience. And unfortunately, the situation sometimes can get worse before it gets better. — P.107

If a muscle is not used, it becomes atrophied — it shrinks. That’s exactly what happens to courage when it’s underutilized. There are people who go their whole lives without ever asking God for courage and without ever “practicing” to be brave in small things. Then when a real moral crisis comes along, a situation that requires the courage to take action that might be painful, sacrificial, and frightening, they fall apart. Sometimes these same people will complain about how hard life is and how especially difficult Christianity is, with all of its demands, regulations, and commandments. The truth is that these folks just haven’t “worked out” their courage muscle in a long time. — P.129

Having an addiction drains you of your ability to think about anything else — including God. All your energy is sapped, all your momentum is lost, all your hope is gone. You become enslaved in the truest sense of the word. Breaking those shackles and escaping from that bondage is so incredibly difficult that it requires the greatest courage in the world. — P.130

They forget the most basic of biblical injunctions; namely, that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” — P.146

In other words, if you are trying your best to be the kind of person God wants you to be, then everything you do, everything you fail to do, and everything that you experience in life — even the worst tragedies — will yield some kind of greater “good” in the end. — P.157

But what we must always try to remember is that God is primarily concerned about one thing: whether or not we make it to heaven. Next to that awesome question, everything else — even our suffering — means nothing. As I’ve said elsewhere, if you die at ten years old in an automobile accident but go to heaven, then you had a successful life. If you die peacefully in your sleep at ninety, rich and powerful in the eyes of the world, but go to hell, then your life was a wasted tragedy. “What does it profit a man,” Christ asked,” to gain the world but suffer the loss of his soul?” — P.166-167